Michigan State basketball: 3 keys to beating Stony Brook

Michigan State basketball hosts Stony Brook on Thursday night, looking to win its third straight game. Here’s what the Spartans must do.

Michigan State basketball is back in action Thursday night against the Stony Brook Seawolves. Stony Brook is only 6-5 on the season, but they are riding high on a four-game win streak.

Here are the three keys for the game that will help the Spartans end that winning streak.

1. Three-point defense

Stony Brook is a very good 3-point shooting team. Their team average for the season is 37.2% which is 53rd best in the country. Leading the way for the Seawolves are two elite players from beyond the arc. Senior guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore is shooting a blistering 48.2% from deep which is eight-best in the country. Not too far behind is Jared Frey who is shooting 42.1% from three which is also top 50 in the country.

The most common way for a team to pull off a massive upset is by making a lot of threes. Stony Brook has the ability to do so, especially through these two players. Michigan State has to defend the three well or the Seawolves will be able to hang around late in this game which is a recipe for disaster.

Michigan State on the season is holding teams to 30.9% from beyond the arc. This isn’t an amazing number, but it should be good enough to get the win over Stony Brook.

2. Win the turnover battle

Michigan State and Stony Brook have been very similar when it comes to turnovers this season. The Spartans are averaging 10.8 turnovers per game while Stony Brook is at 11.7. Turnovers are a big part of every game, but how those turnovers happen matters the most.

Michigan State is at their best when they get out in transition. One way to do that is by forcing live ball turnovers by stealing the ball. Dead ball turnovers, like traveling or stepping out of bounds, aren’t as critical, so our focus needs to be on forcing those live ball turnovers.

Thankfully for us, we have been very good recently in limiting our turnovers. Our season average may be 10.8, but the Spartans have turned the ball over less than 10 times in three of our last four games. Turnovers are usually a problem under Tom Izzo coached teams, but that is now turning into one of this team’s strong points. If the Spartans want to avoid the upset on Thursday, they need to beat Stony Brook in the turnover battle.

3. Start fast

How often have we seen this team start slow this season? Way too often is the right answer. That hasn’t been a problem in the last couple games, but I’m not confident enough to say we’ve moved past this problem yet.

In a perfect world, Thursday night’s game is a very boring one. By this I mean that we get off to a fast start, get our lead to 15-20 points early in the second half and then cruise to a victory. That is exactly what we did against Baylor and Oakland, and I hope we can get that done again.

Thursday night will tell us a lot about our team. The game before Christmas break can be a scary one for a lot of teams. Guys might be excited to get a little time off and to see their families around the holidays so they may lose focus. Also, these games are typically against lesser quality opponents too which can hinder their focus.

But if Michigan State can play the way they have been recently, I have no doubt that we will come away with another “boring” 20-point victory.